clear

Clear the terminal screen

$ clear

$ clear -x

$ clear -T [xterm-256color]

$ printf '\033[2J\033[H'

clear [-Ttype] [-V] [-x]

clear clears the terminal screen if this is possible, including its scrollback buffer (if the extended E3 capability is defined). It looks in the environment for the terminal type given by the environment variable TERM and then queries the terminfo database to determine how to clear the screen.
The command outputs escape sequences that instruct the terminal emulator to clear the visible screen area and, by default, the scrollback buffer as well. This is equivalent to pressing Ctrl+L in many shells, though Ctrl+L typically only clears the visible portion without affecting scrollback.
The clear command is useful for privacy (removing sensitive output from view), reducing visual clutter during long terminal sessions, and resetting the terminal to a known state.

-T type

Specify the terminal type to use instead of $TERM

Print version information and exit

Don't attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer

Not all terminals support clearing the scrollback buffer; in such cases only the visible screen is cleared. The behavior depends on the terminal emulator's implementation of the clear sequence. In some configurations, Ctrl+L provides similar functionality but may behave differently regarding scrollback. The cleared content is not securely erased from memory; for sensitive data, consider closing the terminal entirely.

The clear command has been part of Unix systems since the early days, originating from the termcap library system for terminal-independent screen handling. The modern implementation is part of the ncurses package, which provides terminal handling capabilities for Unix-like systems. The command has remained essentially unchanged in functionality over the decades, though the underlying terminal handling mechanisms have evolved from termcap to terminfo.

reset(1), tput(1), stty(1), tty(1)